Happiness
by SpecificTaigu
Summary: When a fight causes Pinkie Pie to accept help from a mysterious stranger, Twilight Sparkle finds herself dealing with the unforeseen consequences.
1. Happiness

"Why are you crying, little one?"

Pinkie Pie's head jerked upwards and she cast nervous glances in all directions to see who was addressing her. She saw nothing but the encroaching darkness of the woods around her with crisscrossed branches overhead blocking out all rays of the sun, roots and damp moss covered the ground in thick patches, and out of the corner of her eye she could barely make out the blue glint of a patch of Poison Joke. There were one or two overturned logs that a pony could hide behind, and a boulder or two as well; the voice hadn't been familiar, so her heart rose up in her throat and made it difficult to breathe as her mind frantically went over a dozen possibilities of who could be sneaking up on her. She wasn't an easy pony to sneak up on, but it seemed as though whoever it was stalking her was immune to her Pinkie Sense.

The thought was not a comforting one.

Pinkie wiped the tears out of her eyes to clear the blurriness of her surroundings. "Who's there?"

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you." The voice was smooth and low and it seemed to come from every direction at once. "I am a friend. You have many friends, don't you Pinkie?"

Pinkie swallowed thickly. She still couldn't find the pony. "I-I do. But I'm pretty sure I only have one friend who lives in the Everfree Forest, and I'm positive you're not her."

Chuckling came from behind her, and Pinkie whirled around just in time to see a lithe, dog-like creature emerge from the shadows. His pelt was dark, almost black enough to appear blue, with tinges of red around his mouth and in the gaps of his toes.

He smiled at her, sharp pointed teeth. "You are right, I am not your zebra friend. But I am still a friend. And I wish to help." He stopped a few feet away and sat, curling a large bushy tail over his dainty paws. "So please, why are you crying?"

Pinkie blinked. Curiosity got the better of her fear. "What are you? Some kind of dog? And how come I can understand you? I'm not Fluttershy; I don't hear animals talking."

"I am a coyote," the creature replied, "and you can hear me because you need my help. Your distress has called to me, and I am here to alleviate it in any way I can."

Pinkie licked her lips. "You can help me with my problem? Are you some kinda genie?"

"No. Merely someone who can lend a hand to a broken hearted mare such as yourself."

Pinkie couldn't feel any of the normal signs that told her to mistrust the situation. She wasn't getting chills, or a creepy crawly feeling up her spine, or even an itchy nose. Plus, he had said he was a friend, and that he wanted to help. What harm could come of just telling him about her problem.

Her eyes began watering again as her situation came back to the forefront of her mind, and she choked back a sob.

The coyote nodded to her. "Take all the time you need."

Pinkie took a deep shuddering breath. "Okay, mister coyote, I'll tell you what's wrong, but I don't think you can help. You see, my friend Twilight and I got into another fight. We fight a lot these days, and it's no fun at all."

"Your friend," the coyote added, "You wish she was more?"

Pinkie bit her lip as a new wave of emotion crashed over her. "Uh huh. But it'd never happen because…" Pinkie closed her eyes, her voice hitched. "Because I can't make her happy."

Suddenly, he was next to her, nuzzling her arm with the soft fur of his face. "Why is it you think she can't be happy, Pinkie? What makes her so angry?"

Pinkie shook her head, lips clamped shut.

"Say it. What is the problem?"

"Me." Pinkie felt a shiver up her spine, but ignored it. "I make her so angry."

"Why? Why do you make her angry?"

"Because I don't make sense." Pinkie ventured. "Because I'm loud. Because I'm me."

The coyote slipped around behind her, running his tail over her sides and back as he nuzzled her other arm. "I could help you."

Pinkie laughed, a cold humorless laugh. "How could you help me? I'm the problem!"

His face popped into view, and she was looking into vast black eyes seemingly devoid of light. "If you make a wish, I can grant it. It's as simple as that."

Pinkie smirked. "I thought you weren't a genie."

"I'm not. You must be aware that there is a price to pay, but when you pay it your wish will be granted."

Pinkie felt her stomach lurch. Something seemed wrong. It was too good to be true.

She heard herself ask, "Anything I want?"

He nodded. "Yes. You could have anything. What is it you'd wish for, Pinkie? Would you wish for the love of your life? For that mare to appreciate you? To worship you? To revere you?"

Pinkie shook her head. "I could never do that to her. If she doesn't love me, she doesn't love me."

He wiggled into her lap and brought his nose up to hers. "Then what will you do? What will you do to make your situation better? To make the days a little brighter?"

Pinkie smiled sadly. "If I made a wish, it would be that Twilight was happy. That's all I want."

The coyote's eyes sparked. "Will you do it? Will you pay the price for the happiness of the one you love?"

Pinkie nodded. "I would give anything for her to be happy. Anything."

"We have a deal."

Pinkie took the coyote's extended paw and shook it.

...

A wind blew through Ponyville and Twilight Sparkle shuddered as it cut through her like an icy knife.

"Honestly, you should know by now to bring a coat with you when it's cold outside like this." Rarity draped a cozy knit sweater over her withers.

Twilight smiled at the white unicorn. "Thanks. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Probably freeze to death somewhere leaving an utterly unfashionable corpse."

The two unicorns shared a brief kiss.

Twilight sighed and glanced back up at the bakery. "I wonder if The Cakes will ever find someone to rent out that old room? It seems so odd that nopony has taken the offer yet. It's such a prime location."

Rarity shrugged and led Twilight away by the hoof. "Who knows. It's been empty since before you arrived, dearie, and maybe it just seems a bit too creepy."

Twilight felt an odd tightness in her chest, as if she was missing something important, but she shook it off with a grin. She shouldn't spend so much time worrying about such silly notions she couldn't explain. She had much better things to occupy her time nowadays anyway.

* * *

A/N: This story is three parts that were written at different times for a flash fiction pony blog a few years ago. Each of them was written in response to a prompt, so I'll be putting the prompts at the bottom here in the author's notes for those who are curious.

**The Prompt**: "What is the wish that you will pay for with your soul?"


	2. Bliss

"_What is it you'd wish for, Pinkie?"_

"_If I made a wish, it would be that Twilight was happy. That's all I want."_

...

Twilight awoke in a cold sweat, shivering. She leaned over the side of her bed, grasping the headboard in a hoof while she hung her head and gasped deeply, her breath gone from her lungs.

Spike stared at her from across the room, his eyes glinting oddly in the sparse light of early morning. "Twilight?"

Tears dripped off her chin, and Twilight felt that deep, gnawing sadness crash over her again and again, beating down on her like waves on the shore, eroding at her sanity.

There was a void. Something was missing.

But she couldn't figure out what it was. She never could. It sat at the back of her mind, cloying at her every thought, begging her to fill the hole in her chest somehow; it haunted her in her nightmares, figures and voices that became nothing but sad echoes when she awoke. She ran a hoof over her eyes as a sob wracked her body.

A gentle claw lighted on her forearm, and she jerked away. Spike retracted his arm with a pained expression. "I just… Are you okay?"

Twilight shook her head, licking her lips in an attempt to ease the sensation of being brittle and useless. "No," she croaked, "It's happening again. The dreams."

Spike clambered onto the bed next to her and hesitantly draped his arms around her barrel in a gentle hug. "I'm sorry, Twilight. Are you positive that Princess Luna can't help?"

Twilight nodded, scooting herself around to return the hug. "She said she doesn't understand it. Her night magic can't alleviate nightmares that she says she can't even sense."

Spike couldn't think of anything to say, so he just squeezed her tighter.

"They're probably not even nightmares," Twilight murmured. "Maybe they're visions. Luna is not well versed in those." She stroked a hoof along the spines of Spike's head. "They're rare. Nopony really knows much about them."

"Twilight…?"

Twilight's gaze hardened as she stared at the wall. "There's only one that I can think of who might just have the knowledge I need."

Spike trembled in her forearms, but Twilight didn't pay him any mind. She needed answers, and she would get them.

One way or another.

...

They were suspended in a field of purplish mist that swirled around them, mixing with other, fainter colors and giving off the unmistakable scent of sulfur. Runes flashed and faded along the invisible walls of the sphere of Twilight's visitation plane: red, green, bright blue; each with its own meaning and warning.

A powerful entity was approaching. He was about to breach the sanctuary. Be careful.

Twilight was expecting him, and so he entered without fuss.

"Why hello. It's been a while since you and your little friends saw me last. I was beginning to think you'd never visit."

Twilight fought against the scowl that tugged at the corners of her mouth. "Discord."

The draconequus floated across the small space allotted to him, free from his stone casing, and writhed his snake-like body around in loops and figure eights. "Oh come on, Twilight Sparkle, you did not call me here just to glower at me. You must have some _pressing _issue on your mind." He flicked the wrist of his lion paw, and stared sadly at his empty fingers when nothing happened. "And I suppose that means you're not interested in my services, so it must be some puzzle if you're coming to _me._"

Twilight stomped a hoof against the ground, scouring little marks into the faux grass beneath her. "I am having visions, and you're going to help me figure them out."

Discord twirled himself around so that his head was resting on a portion of his back, peering at Twilight upside down as the hairs of his beard tickled the tip of his nose. "So demanding. Certainly the princesses could help you? Why would you need the Lord of Chaos?"

Twilight said nothing, and Discord straightened himself and floated over to her, rubbing his chin absentmindedly as he circled her lazily. "Hmm." he hummed, grinning menacingly, "I think I know why you're here. You've lost something, haven't you?"

Twilight's ears perked and she couldn't keep herself from nodding excitedly. "Y-yes! That's it!" She clamped a hoof over her mouth, mortified to have lost her cool, and Discord laughed.

"Aha! I knew it." He kicked his hoof over his scaly knee and rested his head on his hands. "I know exactly what you're looking for, my dear. But the real question is: do you want to know?"

Twilight opened her mouth to answer emphatically, but Discord interrupted her, "Or better yet, do you think you can live with the knowledge of what you've lost? You need to decide if you'd prefer the bliss of your ignorance or the pain of your understanding. Think carefully now."

But Twilight knew that she could not willingly stay ignorant; that was not something that was possible for Twilight Sparkle. She would take steps towards enlightenment, no matter how painful those steps might be.

"I want to know."

Discord's smile drooped. "So be it."

* * *

A/N: **The Prompt:** Someone goes to seek advice from an unexpected source. (This one was written in 2012 before Discord's redemption.)


	3. Joy

"_What is it you'd wish for, Pinkie?"_

"_If I made a wish, it would be that Twilight was happy. That's all I want."_

…

"_You need to decide if you'd prefer the bliss of your ignorance or the pain of your understanding. Think carefully now."_

"_I want to know."_

...

She peered into the vision as one peers through a window that is coated with condensation, squinting to make out the figures that were so close but obstructed. She raised a hoof and pressed it against the air in front of her, unsurprised when she met resistance. It was as though she was in a glass box watching a scene unfold before her, the ponies as actors and her and her guide as an audience in their seats.

"Can't you clear this up? I can barely make heads or tails of what's going on."

Discord chuckled, bending his long torso and bringing his head down to her level. "You can't see because you do not understand. And you do not understand because you cannot see."

Twilight scowled. This was one of the reasons she had been loath to ask the Lord of chaos for his help; he would never give her the answer she needed, but continually spoke in circles and riddles that made no sense.

"Maybe if you cleared it up I could see _and _understand."

Discord's shape melted down into a smaller form beside her, taking on the appearance of a shaggy-maned stallion, although all four of his limbs retained their original mishmash of species.

"Twilight, my dear, I am unable to do anything for you other than bring you here. You alone may decide to see, and you alone may understand just what you have lost. If you ask me you're better off not knowing."

Twilight snorted and turned her attention back to the scene before her. "I didn't ask you."

"Suit yourself."

Discord was being oddly amiable, and if she hadn't had a lot on her mind maybe Twilight would have been concerned. As it was, she focused solely on attempting to make sense of the fuzzy figures that danced just out of reach.

One of the shapes was a familiar shade of purple, and the longer she stared at this particular shape the more she recognized it. As the identity became clearer, she could hear its voice become less muffled.

"That's me!" Twilight gaped and prodded the glass with a hoof.

Discord chuckled, but said nothing.

As soon as she made the connection, her own figure became crystal clear and she could hear herself shouting.

"You made a huge mess of _everything_! You _always _do this… Why don't you just leave me alone for once?"

Twilight flicked her ears back. "I sound so angry." She tried to make sense of the pony her image was yelling at, but it was a vague pink blur and it seemed as though whenever her angry reflection would scream their name her voice would become muffled and incomprehensible. "Who is that?"

"Do you not remember?"

Twilight shook her head and pressed her muzzle against the glass in desperation. "No. Is that who I've lost?"

Discord nodded, but again said nothing.

She focused as hard as she could on the shape of the other pony, but she couldn't make out more than the two tones of pink, one on top of the other, and the fact that they seemed to be shaking under the verbal barrage.

Twilight forced herself to listen once more.

"All I want is a little quiet…! I don't want candy or cupcakes or company, I just want to be left alone!"

There was a quiet reply that Twilight couldn't hear despite straining her ears.

"No! This is more important than whatever asinine thing you've decided to throw a party for this time! I've no time to play around at Sugarcube Corner!"

Twilight shot a glance over to Discord who flashed her a wicked grin. "No time for fun and games, what an absolute _boring _Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight knit her eyebrows together and tapped her forehead with her hoof, chewing on her lower lip. Fun and games. Parties. Cupcakes. Each innocuous thing sent a small stab of pain through her skull as though they were trying to break through some kind of barrier. Those things should mean something to her. Those things meant a lot to the pony she couldn't remember.

She fell to her knees and pressed her face against the smooth surface of their glass box, groaning in frustration and pain as a headache lanced beams of pain through her head, focusing behind her eyes. Laughter. Something about laughing and giggling and…

She jumped up with a cry of pain, and she stared out at the scene again. Balloons. The pony's cutie mark stood out boldly against the rest of the figure's blurred outline: three balloons, blue and then yellow and then blue again. She felt as though her skull would split open from the pain, but she couldn't not know. She couldn't keep living feeling as though some vital piece of herself was missing, but never knowing what it was.

Pink fur, pink mane, balloons. Pinkie Pie.

It struck her like lightning, and all the sudden she could see the scene in its entirety. Twilight Sparkle's eyes were bloodshot and tired, and she had knocked a basket of sweets out of the pink pony's… Pinkie Pie's hooves. She was yelling with words laced with so much venom, and Pinkie was taking it without a word, eyes spilling over with tears, and lower lip trembling.

Pinkie raced out of the door, and the glass box followed her into the woods.

A shadowy figure.

A bargain.

Twilight struck the sides of the glass box with all her might and wailed, begging her not to do it, but it was to no avail. Hoof met paw, and a sinister laugh echoed through the forest.

The scene faded to black, and she was alone once more with Discord.

"Do you remember?" he asked.

"Bring her back."

Discord stretched himself back into his true shape and floated into the air. "I can't."

"Bring her back!" Twilight screamed, pounding the floor with her hoof as hard as she could. "Bring her back! Bring her back! Bring her back!" She collapsed to the ground, sobbing. "Please."

Discord shook his head. "I told you it'd be better if you didn't remember. Did you listen? Of course not, nopony listens to Discord. And now you must live with the memory of what you have lost. I hope you're happy."

Discord disappeared back from whence he'd come, breaking the spell and depositing Twilight Sparkle back on the grass of the Canterlot gardens with the frightened face of Discord's statue screaming down at her.

As she lay face down in the grass, she wished it would rain. But it didn't. She night was clear and calm, and the moon shone brightly and unobstructed in the the sky. Crickets chirped and the wind blew gently through her mane, carrying with it a haunting refrain of laughter from somewhere far far away.

* * *

A/N: **The Prompt: **_I can't remember._


End file.
